When you’re ready to start looking for your first home, it can be difficult to know where exactly to start.
Thankfully, there are a number of different ways to find your dream first home both online and in-person that we’ll discuss in this guide.
The different ways you can look for your first home to buy
When you start the home buying journey, many first time buyers immediately assume that you have to get in touch with an estate agent straight away. However, this is not the case, and there are a number of different ways you can look for your first home.
Some of the most common ways to find your first home to buy include:
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- Using online property search tools, such as Right Move, Zoopla and On The Market
- Registering with local estate agent newsletters and looking at their websites
- Attending property auctions
It’s a good idea to use a variety of these methods to find the right property for your first home.
Searching for a house online
Generally speaking, looking online is one of the best ways to find a home as you can add a variety of filters, such as how many bedrooms you’d like, the location of the property and if it is freehold or leasehold.
Not every house that an estate agent is selling will be listed on online platforms, such as Right Move. This is why visiting your local estate agents website is a good idea, especially if you are looking for a property in a specific area.
The best property websites for the UK
We’ve mentioned a few property websites that are commonly used in the UK, but listed below are some of the most popular and best sites to look for your first home:
When you’re looking for a property, it’s worth having a look across all the different sites. It can be time consuming, but the same house is often unlikely to be listed across multiple different sites.
Searching for a home in person
One way to search for a home in person is by driving around the area you’d like to find a house in and looking for the for sale signs. This is quite an old fashioned way and can be time consuming, but it will give you a good idea of the types of properties that may be for sale.
You can also arrange a meeting with your local estate agents who will listen to your wants and needs and then collate some properties that you may be interested in. This can be really beneficial if you have quite specific needs you’d like to meet or you just want to have a general chat about the area or the asking price of a property.
Looking for properties with an estate agent
It is generally advisable to look for a property with an estate agent, whether you’d prefer to do that in person or online.
Estate agents will have access to a wider range of properties that may not be advertised online or across popular property selling sites, giving you more options to choose from. They also have knowledge on local property prices and will help you to make informed decisions about a property’s value and potential offers that a seller may be open to.
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Tips on how to find your first home to buy
When you’re getting ready to buy your first home, there are a few steps you can take to make the process easier.
Financial preparation
Before you start looking at properties, it’s really important to get a good understanding of what you can afford. You should start by understanding your mortgage affordability, how much a lender will be willing to lend you and what size deposit you might need. After all, there’s no point finding a property that you love but you can’t afford.
You can do this by working with one of our expert mortgage advisors here at Barlow Irvin. We will help you to check your credit score and understand what you can do to improve it, as well as creating an agreement in principle to help you get an understanding of how much you can afford to borrow for a property.
Some estate agents may ask you to show your agreement in principle before you view the property, so it’s a good idea to have this in place before you start the property hunt.
Location research
Once you have got your agreement in principle, you can next move onto looking at areas you’d like to move to. You may want to consider specific factors such as the distance to your workplace, schools, local amenities and transport links.
Essentially, think of anything that is important to you when it comes to where you live, and factor this in when you’re looking for a location.
View multiple properties
If you’ve seen a few properties that you like, it’s worth viewing them even if you have one in mind that you like more.
Going to view properties is essential when it comes to the house buying process as you can only see so much of a house online. In person, you can ask questions about the property to the estate agent or seller, find issues that may not be presented properly online and get a real feeling for the home.
It is often the case that you will fall in love with a property from the pictures, but when you go to view it in person, you end up changing your mind. If you have found a house that you think you’d like to put an offer in for, don’t be afraid to ask the estate agent for another viewing.
Buying a house is one of the biggest financial commitments you will make, so it’s important you make the right choice for you.
Seek professional advice
Here at Barlow Irvin, we don’t just help you to understand your mortgage criteria, we can also help you with a number of different factors when it comes to buying your first home.
We can help you when it comes to negotiating offers and helping you make informed decisions based on your affordability. We can also help by answering any questions you have along the way to make sure you understand the whole process.
Discuss your Options with a Mortgage Broker
What is the best way to search for your first home?
The best way to search for your first home is to fully understand how much you can afford to borrow. From here you can clearly define your budget, your desired location and key features you’d like in your first home.
Although everyone’s journey to buying their first home will be unique, it’s always a good idea to search across the different sites we have previously mentioned, build relationships with local estate agents and visit the properties in person.
If you’re currently interested in buying your first home, but you’re not sure where to start, we highly recommend you get in touch with our friendly and experienced team today.
We will help to guide you through the home buying process and can even put you in touch with local estate agents who will have properties similar to what you’re looking for.